Child to child hygiene education

Credit: WaterAid / Jane Scobie

The child to child approach of hygiene education is based on the belief that children not only need to keep healthy themselves, but can often be highly influential in promoting the good health of others.

They are often responsible for younger brothers and sisters, for the care of domestic animals, for collection of water and for household cleaning tasks, and therefore have huge potential for raising family hygiene awareness.

The obvious focus is the school population and much imaginative work to these ends has been directed there in Tanzania and elsewhere. Unique to Tanzania however has been the publication, in Swahili, of an attractive story and activity book, The Ghost of Mazengo Village, complete with colour illustrations.

Nearly two thousand copies have been distributed to over forty schools after official government endorsement.

In Tabora a child to child approach has been established targeting children that don't attend school. This grew out of a survey which indicated that the majority of children in project villages were not at school, stated reasons ranging from extreme poverty to impossible walking distances.

Groups are therefore organised for such children based on enjoyable activities they would otherwise have no access to such as football, netball, drama, choral singing, traditional dance and drawing, into which hygiene messages are skilfully woven.

These fun methods are essential with an almost wholly illiterate group, who are thereby enabled to carry effective messages into their homes, particularly through such as song and dance.